Alex and Andy in front of some other train. 

Alex and Andy on the train. 

Alex and Andy at a Day Out with Thomas. Yes it rained and was cold (very) Memorial Weekend. 

And the foot is in the mouth. 

Sean and a large baby foot, working at getting it in that mouth. 

Seany. Yes, he's really that cute. 

Ryan 'cleaning himself up.' 

Ryan smiling instead of eating. 

Alex and Andy fishing at the NICU reunion -- the older boys obviously enjoyed it a lot more that the twix. 

Andy and Alex sporting matching smily face tats. 

Andy getting a tattoo at the baby's NICU reunion. 

Abba, graduation, and more

Despite all the dreadful things going on, we can still find things to laugh and enjoy over.

1. Sean speaks! Its true at the young age of 8 months old, Seany not only speaks but has a favorite band! ABBA! He talks about them contantly, dialogue like, "Aaaabba. Aaaa, AAaaBBBBBBAAAAAaaa. Abba. OOH."

Sean has also started combat crawling. A little pro -- the tiniest member of the family making his way silently around the house. We never know where he might find himself.

2. Alex is a proud kindergarten graduate, entering full day school in the fall with first grade. He sang all the songs, he spoke all the words, accepted his dipolma, and had the lovely Celeste help him with his yarn tassel that managed to detach from his mortar (sorry spelling) board.

3. Andy has developed much of Alex's zest for life. He chants everything, "Pizza! Pizza! Pizza!"

"We're not having pizza, Andy. We're having chicken for dinner."

"Icken for dinner! Icken for dinner! Icken for dinner!"

4. Ryan is finally taken a liking to baby food. For a while after they're most recent hospital stay, he'd taken to gagging up all baby food. He's still very easily distracted by Andy. Sean will be totally focused on the spoon and its progress toward either mouth (his or Sir Ry's). While Ryan will practically twist totally around to get a look at whatever Andy is up too. Usually, trying to get the baby-twix to look at him. Andy loves their feeding time.

Lost job

Sean and Ryan, the baby-twix, just spent 2 weeks in the hospital on IVs. They were suffering some kind of gastro-intenstinal virus that lead to severe dehydration -- that's very bad.

Everyone is home and healthy now!

In other news, Mark was laid off from his new job, just today. Some kind of reorganization and restructuring speech. He asked if it was preformance related, he was told it was not. So that's a relief. Any management jobs, please pass on to us. Thanks.

The visitors found it a tad tiring. 

Sean was getting closer to better. 

Ryan was feeling a lot better. 

The patients -- Sean with a normal ankle iv and poor Ryan's secomd (after two hours of tries)went into his head turning him into an unicorn. 

Alex sporting his cast. 

My niece, Jazmine. 

Alex and Ryan sharing a kiss and a face grab. 

Andy, Sean, and Ryan playing together. 

Art imitating life -- its a rubber lizard and yet Andy still managed to scare its tail off! 

Sean and Ryan in matching spring garb. 

Last week, what lovely SPRING weather we were having. 

Alex and Andy sporting bandanas -- a crpyt and a blood. 

Ryan and Sean sporting their new handmade sweaters and booties -- the hats were too small. 

Andy was in a I'm still a baby mood. 

Alex believes in the popular culture mythical creatures -- Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Lepruchans, etc.

So during St Patrick's week, his class was hunting a lepruchan by the name of Penelope. She was about an inch tall and on Friday she'd make her appearance. All week he told me about her and on Donut day (Wednesday) he even found the clue to where she'd be hanging out.

So Friday came and went without any mention of Penelope. Saturday I asked him about it. I got a very disappointed response, "She had to go protect a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. (Heavy sigh...)"

With all the storms we've had -- snow yesterday -- we've seen a few rainbow. The way our house is positioned, we have a full rainbow just 100 yards away that covers about 10 miles. Each time he sees it, he marvels and then begs to go get the pot of gold -- the only problem -- which end is it at, or even better maybe there are TWO pots of gold!

--

Alex has of late been not so good. He disobeys and pretends to not hear requests until the third or fourth time he's asked (which any parent will tell you can be very tiresome). So one morning after the usual struggle, HE MISSED THE BUS. Yes, he did. I was furious. So furious in fact, that I threatened the ultimate penalty -- Santa's naughty list. What do the kids get on the naughty list -- nada, zilch, zero, nothing.

He was actually sobbing. I felt a pang of guilt followed by the thought, "well maybe this well get him to cooperate." So far, its been fairly effective. He actually gets dressed in the morning. Prior to the threat of no toys or other present type items at Christmas, he danced, he climbed, he frolicked around upstairs getting yelled at to get dressed. He would then put on one garment and go back to previous behavior.

---

When we made the baptixm invitations, I saw that Staples was advertising cheap color copies. So I decided to take advantage. In we trooped, mother, 6 year old boy, 2 year old boy (who acts much like older boy), and two infant car seats. Upon entering the store, Alex says, "Mommy, you don't have to take the paper to them. Let me find the EASY button and that will do it for us. Plus, its much faster."

Torn between crushing his belief in the EASY button or getting the copies done, I say, "Oh, this store doesn't have one." But maybe another Staples does."

Then the ever so helpful copy desk clerk had to add her two cents. "The EASY button is at the customer service desk."

The red flash I saw through the corner of my eye was Alex followed in hot pursuit by Andrew. Off they went to press the EASY button. After they both pressed it about twenty times, Alex announced, "Mommy, I think the EASY button is broken. I kept pressing it and your copies still aren't finished. (Deep, disappointment visible in his sigh.)"

---

Alex started soccer. Games are Saturdays through June 17. Any takers? He's got a lot of friends on his team this year!!! Unfortunately, Celeste, the girl of his dreams, is on another team.

(Just this morning, he asked me for "Sugar-free mint gum."

"Why" I asked.

"Celeste will think my breathe will smell good."

"Did she think it smelled bad?"

"No, but now it will smell good to her." He grinned from ear to ear, imagining Celeste's reaction.)

Back to soccer, Andy really wants to play. He tried to join the game twice. The second time no one noticed the two year old chasing after the big kids -- not the coaches, the other parents, or me. (Mark had the babies in the car so as not to burn up all their brown fat in the cold spring morning.) I removed him, despite protests from the game. A father took him and his own two year old off for their own game. Andy panicked though when the other boy tried to make off with his soccer ball. He loves his sports.